Benchwarmer
An Anxious Dad's Almanac of Fatherhood and Other Failures

It's somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but I'll round up due to the halo effect of Wilker's brilliant baseball-cards-as-touchstones memoir "Cardboard Gods." Wilker depicts the first year of his son's life, and the effect his newborn son has on the author and the author's relationship with his wife, aga......more

Oof, this book is awfully down on itself. But I guess that's kind of baked into the concept of a losers' encyclopedia. Really fascinating concept, looking at the full spectrum of failure through the lens of professional sports -- then contrasting all those tales of loss and woe with the emotional ro......more

3.5 stars. A heavy dose of Eeyore Syndrome. Too much at times, though the writing was decent throughout.......more

What initially intrigued me about this book was that it looked to be a hilarious romp describing the first year of fatherhood using sports situations/metaphors. While some portions of the text did indeed bring a smile to my face, the overall bleak outlook of the text made it a rather depressing read......more

I've followed along Josh Wilker's writing career since the early days of his Cardboard Gods blog, which turned out the great memoir of the same name. His follow up memoir captures the trials and tribulation that he experiences in the first year of his son's life. Though self deprecating, Wilker does......more